How would the parser know to give a "missing continuation" error message? '+$d+$e' is perfectly legal perl code, albeit code which gives rise to the warning "Useless use of addition (+) in void context".

The reason I gave that code as an example is that it's a perfectly normal way of spreading complex expressions over multiple lines: e.g. where you need to add several variables together and the variables have non-trivial (i.e. long) names, e.g.

$pressure =
       $partial_pressure_nitrogen
     + $partial_pressure_oxygen
     + $partial_pressure_water_vapour
     + $partial_pressure_argon
     + $partial_pressure_carbon_dioxide;
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In this case, the automatic semicolons are unhelpful and will give rise to confusing error messages. So you've just switched one problem for another, and raised the cognitive load - people now need to know about your pragma and also know when its in scope.

Dave.